By Andrew Osborne and Gleb Stolyarov
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian cargo ship called the Ursa Major sank in the Mediterranean Sea overnight after an explosion in its engine room and two of its crew are still missing, Russia’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
The ship, built in 2009, was operated by Obronlogistica, a company that is part of the Russian Defense Ministry’s military construction operations, which previously said it was headed for Vladivostok, a Russian far-eastern port that has two large ports. The cranes collided. the deck
The Foreign Ministry’s crisis center said in a statement that 14 of the plane’s 16 crew members had been rescued and brought to Spain, but two were still missing. It is not known what caused the explosion in the engine room.
The state RIA news agency, citing the Russian embassy in Spain, said it was looking into the circumstances of the sinking and was in contact with authorities in Spain.
Oboronlogistika and SK-Yug, a company listed as part of the LSEG group and the direct owner and operator of the vessel, declined to comment on the sinking. Both organizations were placed under sanctions by the United States in 2022 for ties to Russia’s military, as was Ursa Major itself.
Unverified video footage of the ship listing heavily on its starboard side with its bow much lower than normal in the sea was filmed by a passing ship on December 23 and published on Tuesday by Russia’s life.ru news outlet. had gone
Spain’s maritime rescue service said it had received a distress signal from Ursa Major on Monday when it was located about 57 miles off the coast of Almera.
It said it had contacted a nearby ship that reported bad weather conditions, a lifeboat in the water, and said the Ursa Major was listing to the starboard side.
Two ships and a helicopter were dispatched to the scene and the 14 surviving crew members were taken to the Spanish port of Cartagena.
It quoted the crew as saying the vessel was carrying empty containers as well as two port cranes on deck.
It said a Russian warship later arrived at the scene and took over rescue operations.
is drowning
Oboronlogistica, the ship’s ultimate owner, said in a statement on Dec. 20 that the ship, which LSEG data showed was formerly known as Sparta III among other names, was to be installed at the port of Vladivostok with special port cranes. was taking Parts for new ice-breakers.
Unverified video footage shows two huge cranes strapped to the deck.
LSEG ship tracking data shows the ship left the Russian port of St Petersburg on December 11 and was last seen sending a signal between Algeria and Spain at 2204 GMT on Monday where it sank.
On leaving St Petersburg it indicated that its next port of call was the Russian port of Vladivostok, not the Syrian port of Tartos which it has called on in the past.
Separately, Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence service – which monitors Russian ship activity – said in a post on its official Telegram channel on Monday that a separate Russian cargo ship, the Sparta, was off the coast of Portugal. Temporarily ran into technical problems.
HUR said in an update that Sparta’s crew had however resolved the problem and that the ship was heading to Syria to collect military equipment and ammunition following the fall of Russian ally Bashar al-Assad.
Reuters could not confirm HUR’s claim about Sparta’s destination or mission.
